


stay

by birdjay



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Cuddling & Snuggling, Don’t copy to another site, Fix-It, Kissing, M/M, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 08:23:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18656653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/birdjay/pseuds/birdjay
Summary: The platform buzzes, and suddenly goes quiet. The cycle has finished. Bucky doesn’t bother to look. There’s no way Steve’s coming back when he has the chance to stay. He moves to walk away, to move on with his life, somehow.“Buck -- ?”Bucky whirls around, hair flying.





	stay

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Остаться](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19943473) by [fandom_SteveBucky_2019](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandom_SteveBucky_2019/pseuds/fandom_SteveBucky_2019)



> this entire fic is born from my absolute hatred of the endgame ending. it's also entirely unbetad so I apologise if there's a glaring error somewhere. 
> 
> love each other, okay? we all need it.

 

 

The platform buzzes to life one more time.

Bucky looks away, positive nothing new is going to happen. It’s going to remain empty, and he’ll be stuck here, in the future, without Steve by his side. Why would he ever deserve to have Steve to himself? He’s done nothing good in his entire life. He shouldn’t have expected, shouldn’t  _ want _ the way he does, but there it is. He can’t change the love he has for Steve. He’ll hold it close right up against his chest like a secret for the rest of his life.

The platform buzzes, and suddenly goes quiet. The cycle has finished. Bucky doesn’t bother to look. There’s no way Steve’s coming back when he has the chance to stay. He moves to walk away, to move on with his life, somehow.

“Buck -- ?”

Bucky whirls around, hair flying.

Steve’s there, in the middle of the machine, panting. The suit looks dirty, broken in a couple of places around his chest, like he got hit with something hard. Sweat dots his forehead, darkening the edges of his hairline. His hands are empty.

Bucky flies at him, not a care in the world for who sees. They collide with a shared ‘Oof,’ and hug tight. Bucky pulls away after a minute, half an hour, three hours. He pulls back, and beams at Steve like the sun itself.

“You’re here,” he says, disbelief evident in his voice.

“I am,” Steve says, exhausted. He smiles, and reaches up to cup Bucky’s face in his hands.

They kiss.

 

***

 

Later, when they’re curled into bed around each other, Bucky turns his head just enough to stare up at Steve. His eyes are closed, but his breathing isn’t quite even enough for him to be properly asleep. Bucky reaches out with his flesh hand, and touches Steve softly, right below his cheekbone. He looks tired, exhausted really, if Bucky’s being honest with himself. Bucky should let him sleep. They both should rest. The day was not an easy one.

“I didn’t think you were gonna come back,” Bucky says into the warm air of the bedroom. His voice is barely there, a soft echo of what it usually is.

“What?” Steve says, opening one eye to look down at Bucky. He reaches up and covers his mouth with one hand so he can yawn behind it. “What’d you say?”

Bucky swallows half a laugh at the look on Steve’s face. He takes a huge breath in, and slowly lets it out. It’s hard to admit ownership of the negative thoughts that had permeated his brain earlier. He’d been so sure that Steve would take the chance fate had offered him, and stay in the past. It would have been so easy, so terribly easy to stay.

When Steve had appeared, looking tired to the bones in that stupid quantum suit, he’d about passed out in relief. Bucky’s still surprised he managed to stay on his own two feet. He takes another breath, and repeats himself, “I didn’t think you were going to come back from the...from the time travel.”

Steve opens his other eye. His expression fades into a faint glare, a disappointed frown.

Bucky gives him smile, or at least tries to. It probably looks more like an embarrassed wince.

“You thought I’d, what? Stay in the forties?” Steve says slowly, enunciating each word clearly.

Bucky nods, now feeling a little more than ashamed with his own thoughts. He keeps going though, explaining his reasonings. “You… you coulda gone back. Back to Carter, back to the life you deserved.”

Steve shifts, pulling away from Bucky to prop himself up on his elbows to look down at him some more. Bucky feels his gaze like a physical touch. It’s hot, and stinging against his face. Steve looks confused, and angry, and a little concerned. All of it at once. “You thought I’d just….go back? And leave you here? And Sam? And we just lost Tony, and Nat and… ”

Bucky nods slowly, letting his hair cover his face like a curtain.

“Are you  _ insane _ , Buck?” Steve asks, incredulous. “Why… why would I do that? She got married, she had kids of her own. She had a life  _ without _ me. She didn’t need me anymore. She never needed me, if we’re being honest,” Steve says, pausing. He shifts again, pulling himself up to a full sitting position. Bucky takes a moment to admire the curves of his abdomen, the stretch of warm tan skin as he moves. When he’s situated, Steve continues in an annoyed huff, “And,  _ and,  _ I’d never leave you in a thousand years, Buck. A million years! A hundred billion! Not for all the stars in the sky. Not again. Not  _ ever  _ again.”

Bucky slowly lets out a breath, eyes wide in his face. “Yeah?”

Steve gives him another look of disbelief, and shakes his head with his eyes shut. “I can’t believe you thought I’d just… up and abandon you like that.”

Bucky sighs, and wiggles his way closer to Steve, close enough that he can curl himself around his side and rest his head on the breadth Steve’s chest. It’s warm under his cheek. “I… I dunno, Steve. I just… I thought maybe you’d think it was better that way.”

“No way. No fuckin’ way,” Steve says, shaking his head again. He curls an arm around Bucky’s shoulders, and sneaks the tips of his fingers into Bucky’s hair. He twirls the hair around them, and then lets it curl off as he lets go. “You think I wanna go back to when we boiled everything? When polio was still a thing? When women and people of color had no rights? When we couldn’t’ve gotten married? Why...why the hell would I do that,  Bucky?”

“I didn’t think about it that much, Steve, I’m sorry, it’s alright…”  Bucky says, closing his eyes. An excited thrill zips down his spine at the mention of them being  _ married _ . Is that something Steve would want? A wedding? Rings? A vow?

Steve nudges him a little. “Hey,” he says, softly.

Bucky opens his eyes and looks up at Steve, tilting his head a little. “What?”

“You think I would go back to a time when I knew you were being tortured, and be able to just let that happen? You think I could do that, and just… live my life?” Steve asks, voice deadly quiet now.

“No, Steve. No, I know you couldn’t,” Bucky answers, chewing on his cheek. Steve can’t ever leave a fight alone. Not if he could do something, not if he could fix it. Bucky knows him. He’s known him his entire goddamn life. This is something that hasn’t changed in the past hundred years, and he doubts it would change with a hundred more.

“I’m stayin’ right here, if you’ll have me,” Steve says, with a soft smile. He leans down, and presses a kiss against Bucky’s forehead. “I don’t wanna be anywhere else.”

“I don’t want you to be anywhere else, either,” Bucky admits, feeling a low thrum through his chest.

Steve wants to be with him.

Steve wants to stay.

Steve  _ chose _ to stay.

Happiness bubbles through him like boiling water. He feels like a teapot ready to whistle, like a kid at  Christmas. He is getting everything he has ever wanted out of life at this very moment.

"Then…” Steve says, twisting a little more so he can pull Bucky into his lap with absolutely no effort. Bucky squeals with laughter at the show of strength, and because Steve’s got a solid grip right on the spot that always tickles. He grins down at Steve, just as Steve says, “I’m staying. With you.”

Bucky smiles again, his cheeks hurting with the effort. He leans down, and kisses Steve once, twice, three times before saying, “That’s all I want, Steve. That’s all I want.”

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
